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Leonora Greytower
"You should thank me. This way, you will never know the pain of not being the favored sibling." ~ Leonora, as she strangled her nephew to death Personality All three of Balticore Greytower's daughters are possessed of an immense bloodlust (see The Mad Princesses), but Leonora Greytower is endowed with a truly special sadism. As soon as she grew old enough to realize that people could be put to death or subjected to torture at her lightest behest, she began to terrorize her subjects and servants frequently and with great relish. When time came for her and her sisters to study the necromantic arts, she excelled in dissecting the living and the dead to uncover the secrets of undeath. Even with limited royal power, she is still a terror to the Court and subjects of the Scourge. To match her violent streak, Leonora is quite gifted mentally and magically. She has exceptional arcane talents and a cunning strategic mind. During the princesses' education, she always managed to keep abreast of her sisters' progress, in spite of their being a few years her senior. Her tremendous mental acuity is often undercut by her emotional instability. To that end, Leonora is vain, impatient, envious, and irritable. She always resented her elder sisters for their sure paths to power and position within the family. She is prone to bouts of rage that often end in the death or mutilation of those close to her. Still somewhat young, she lacks the grace and composure that characterizes Odessa, and she seems ill suited to the noble title she is destined to inherit. With all these abysmal lows come dizzying highs, and in a good mood, Leonora strikes onlookers as practically giddy. Nevermind that this glee is often brought on by maiming an underling. She is a driving force in the social events of the Scourge Court, planning and coordinating the lavish parties and balls they enjoy, much to her uncle's chagrin. Betrayal In a single evening, Leonora Greytower orchestrated and undertook an act of betrayal that nearly resulted in the extinction of her family. As is customary, the body of Balticore Greytower laid in state for a period of time before the elaborate embalming ritual performed on all heads of the house was performed. With the house's armies and cabal of necromancers depleted, Balvina Greytower had taken it upon herself to perform her father's embalming, gifted as she was in necromancy as Ghastwitch-to-be. While she labored over her father's corpse, performing incantations and making incisions to remove certain organs, the body rose. Under the control of Leonora, the corpse of High King Balticore rose from its slab and killed Balvina. Before this act was discovered, Leonora had made her way to the chambers Balvina shared with her husband, Evander Odelvild, and their children, Grantz and Corvin Greytower. Upon arrival, Leonora was pleased to find Evander already dead on the floor, a goblet of poisoned wine not far away. Still not yet complete, Leonora stalked into the bedchamber of her two nephews, finding them sound asleep. The thrashing as she smothered Grantz, the elder, woke young Corvin, but before he could cry out for help, his aunt's hands were around his throat, and with his last breath, an entire branch of House Greytower had been excised from the family tree. With Odessa already crowned Margravine and High Queen, Leonora was left as the heir apparent to the titles of Ghastwitch and Witch Queen. It is unknown whether Leonora had designs on killing Odessa immediately thereafter. She made no further moves that evening, and within a day, Vandergast and Odessa agreed that Yshpyrre was not safe for the young queen, and Odessa fled the Scourge. It should be noted that such violent expurgations are not unheard of in the history of House Greytower. Many times one or two heirs have mowed down whole generations of their blood relations to ensure their accession to the family titles. What sets Leonora's betrayal apart is its having happened at a time when the bloodline was already so close to extinction, and her apparent intentions to be the last Greytower standing. Even when the number of relations killed soared into the dozens, there has always been a strict understanding that two Greytowers at least must remain. The Margrave and the Ghastwitch. Until now. Appearance Still shaking off the last vestiges of puberty, Leonora retains some teenage awkwardness in her carriage and figure. At 5'9" she is tall for a young woman, but rather than slender, she seems merely lanky. Rather than imposing, simply... tall. A tinge of acne still haunts her signature Greytower pallor. But there is to be no mistake, despite her slight gawkiness, Leonora Greytower is quite a beautiful young woman. Her hair is dark, dark brown, and she wears it flowing down to the waist with heavy bangs across her forehead. Her nails are trimmed to sharp points and varnished black, and she is quite fond of black lipstick and deep purple eyeshadow. "Shaded" is perhaps the best descriptor for her entire aesthetic. Though she and her sisters used to only wear crowns for ceremonial purposes, since her father's death, she is virtually never seen without a tiara of silver and onyx. She stalks about the halls of Yshpyrre in black velvet and silver filigree, and many a Greytower footsoldier has won favor by returning from a border raid with a new piece of silver jewelry for the mad princess.